{"id":190688,"date":"2026-03-13T20:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190688\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:56:37","slug":"jury-reaches-verdict-in-trial-of-pinellas-man-charged-in-random-tire-iron-attack-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190688\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury reaches verdict in trial of Pinellas man charged in random tire iron attack in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

The jury found Savonne Morrison, 21, guilty of second-degree manslaughter and criminal mischief.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Following testimony and deliberations,<\/a> a jury reached a verdict Friday in the trial of a Pinellas County man charged in a violent 2022 crime spree<\/a> that ended with a deadly tire iron attack.<\/p>\n

The jury found Savonne Morrison, 21, guilty of second-degree manslaughter and criminal mischief.<\/p>\n

An investigation began<\/a> after 49-year-old Jeffrey (Jeff) Chapman was found dead<\/a> around 12:37 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2022 on a Clearwater Beach sidewalk. Chapman was riding his bike home.<\/p>\n

During the trial, jurors heard about the beginning of the case, when Morrison and another man, Jermaine Bennett<\/a>, allegedly used a tire iron to break into cars. Videos that prosecutors said were recovered from Morrison and Bennett’s cellphones were shown in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne would be smashing the window, while the other filmed, and vice versa,\u201d a detective testified while describing the videos.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the crimes escalated from vehicle break-ins to random, violent attacks.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the two men first attacked 79-year-old John Budenas in St. Petersburg using the same tire iron seen in the videos. Budenas survived and spoke to 10 Tampa Bay News in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n

They then traveled to Clearwater, where Chapman was beaten to death, according to investigators. During testimony, a detective also testified that the suspects did not know the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas that a random act of violence?\u201d a prosecutor asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was random, sir,\u201d the detective replied.<\/p>\n

The defense had argued that the videos did not actually show anyone being harmed. During the trial, jurors also reviewed text messages between Morrison and Bennett, reportedly sent the day after the killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYo, you good?\u201d Bennett texted Morrison.<\/p>\n

Morrison responded, “Hell yea.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Morrison also sent a text that included \u201clol\u201d along with a link to a news story about the murder. In another message, Bennett allegedly responded: \u201cWe did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors emphasized the wording during testimony.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t ‘I did it,’ was it?\u201d the prosecutor asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the detective replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was ‘We did it,’\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

Morrison\u2019s attorney argued his client did not know about any plan to hurt anyone and did not swing the tire iron himself.<\/p>\n

Bennett, the other man charged in the case, pleaded guilty in 2024 and is already serving a sentence of life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The jury found Savonne Morrison, 21, guilty of second-degree manslaughter and criminal mischief. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-190688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}